This study focused on understanding why at-risk seventh-grade students often perform poorly in school and how implementing certain strategies can help motivate them to positive classroom performance. The goal was to find ways to help at-risk students become more involved in their schoolwork. Literature has shown that motivation comes from the…

Objectives: To assess prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms in young adolescents and examine associations between symptoms and sociodemographic and behavioral factors. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data from 3621 seventh grade students from 16 middle schools were analyzed. Results: Elevated depressive symptoms were reported by 40% of girls…

The Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) sets forth a vision for technology immersion in Texas public schools. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) originally directed more than $14.5 million in federal Title II, Part D monies toward funding a wireless learning environment for high-need middle schools through a competitive grant process. A concurrent…

US majority (European-American) and minority (African-American, Latin-American, Asian-American) children were interviewed regarding race-based and non-race based reasons for exclusion in interracial peer contexts (N = 685), evenly divided by gender at 9, 12, and 15 years of age (4th, 7th, and 10th grades) attending 13 US public schools. All…

Middle school prealgebra students (n=157) learned about functions in a 20-day unit that emphasized: (1) representing problems in multiple formats, (2) anchoring learning in a meaningful thematic context, and (3) discussing problem-solving processes in cooperative groups. They produced smaller pretest-to-posttest gains on symbol manipulation tasks,…

The lack of leisure reading of learning disabled seventh graders was addressed by the implementation of a 3-part reading program. First, a sustained silent reading program was established school-wide on a daily basis. Second, a target group of 15 seventh grade learning disabled students participated in sustained silent reading with writing twice a…

In Talent Development Middle Schools, students needing extra help in mathematics participate in the Computer- and Team-Assisted Mathematics Acceleration (CATAMA) course. CATAMA is an innovative combination of computer-assisted instruction and structured cooperative learning that students receive in addition to their regular math course for about…

This paper describes a study that investigated the interchangeability of four different assessment methods for measuring middle-school students' understanding of science concepts. The four methods compared were hands-on tasks with associated multiple-choice and written justification items, written analogues of the hands-on tasks, and two types of…

A study examined the effectiveness of a collaborative research and development project designed to enhance the academic competence of typically underserved minority students through instructional strategies which emphasize cooperative learning, maximize heterogeneous skill groupings, and focus on higher order thinking and communication skills.…

Collected observations of parental behaviors of fifth graders and then obtained adjustment measures for the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Supportive, aware parenting was associated with early adolescents' positive academic, social, and psychological adjustment in fifth grade and with further improvement in adjustment in seventh grade. (RJM)

Effects of ability grouping on cognitive achievement in mathematics and science were studied for middle school students from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, with a seventh grade sample of 1,900 students. Ability grouping helped the advanced, harmed the slower students, and had a negligible overall effect. (SLD)

Investigated seventh- and ninth-graders' school context, motivation, and behavior during transition to high school. Found more positive motivational contexts in ninth than seventh grade. Found that seventh-grade discipline referrals, doubts about the economic value of education, and negative expectations of peers and teachers discriminated between…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using problem-solving strategies in middle school mathematics classes. Participants were seventh grade Pre-algebra students from a school located in Maryland. Sixty-nine students participated in the study. Using math attitudinal surveys, exit tickets, observations and interviews as…

Change in middle school students' sense of school belonging was examined in relation to grade point average, motivation variables, and teachers' promotion of mutual respect in classes. Survey data from 618 students collected in three waves during the sixth and seventh grades were submitted to growth curve analysis. On average, students' sense of…

This paper examines conditions influencing achievement in and attitudes toward mathematics among middle-school Latino students. Observations were carried out in a rural California middle school that served a largely Mexican American student population and that was in the process of implementing a new thematic mathematics curriculum in…